U.S. Indians Want Arab, 3rd World Aid

July 11, 1977

WASHINGTON (Jul. 10)

Representatives of 23 Indian tribes in the West have held two meetings here with representatives of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Nations (OPEC) in an effort to gain help from Arab and Third World countries to develop uranium and coal reserves thought to lie beneath their reservations.

Peter MacDonald, tribal chairman of the Navajo Nation and chairman of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, which met with the OPEC members, said another meeting will be held this week. While he declined to identify the countries with which the Council met late last month, he said the Indians are appealing to the Arab and Third World nations because of what he termed federal red tape. He said the talks were initiated by the Indians. The tribes involved represent about two-thirds of the American Indian population.